Congress is wrangling with the issue of where to draw the line between state and federal oversight of large-scale compounding pharmacies in light of a series of infections — including a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak — linked to the facilities. There now appears to be general agreement the FDA needs more clear authority over compounding manufacturers — pharmacies that compound bulk supplies of drugs in advance of a patient prescription.

Dozens of Tennessee residents continue to experience health problems and mounting expenses from the fungal meningitis outbreak more than six months after it began. While many have filed lawsuits, most have been put on hold because the supplier of the tainted drugs filed for bankruptcy late last year.

A Washington Post investigation has found that shoddy practices and unsanitary conditions at compounding pharmacies like the New England Compounding Center (NECC) have been harming people for the past decade. At least four pharmacies have been linked to 51 deaths and 700 illnesses over the past ten years, including the 45 deaths linked to contaminated steroid injections shipped by the NECC.

A federal grand jury in Boston has begun investigating the Framingham compounding pharmacy that made the tainted steroid injections blamed for at least three dozen deaths in seven states, according to several people familiar with the matter, including one who has been called to testify. The development is the latest sign that federal prosecutors are pursuing potential criminal charges against the companies or people deemed responsible for the outbreak.

Lawsuits against New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc. over cases of fungal meningitis linked to the company’s injectable steroids can move forward and evidence must be preserved, a federal judge said. The company had asked U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor in Boston to delay a dozen lawsuits filed in federal court in Massachusetts pending a decision next year by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on which court should hear the hundreds of cases pending nationwide.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released an updated list of contaminated drugs produced by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), the pharmacy responsible for the recent national meningitis outbreak. FDA inspections of the facility found unknown fungal growths and bacteria in the steroids triamcinolone and betamethasone.

Lawyers for two people who claim they contracted meningitis from contaminated steroid injections made by a Massachusetts pharmacy asked a judge on Tuesday to freeze up to $461 million in assets of the pharmacy, its owners and two related companies while lawsuits are pending.